TK-50167 STORMTROOPER

Member: 501st Legion
Garrison: Florida
Squad: Squad7
TKID: TK50167
Call Sign: Kilroy

My name is Walter Woodruff and I am a Star Wars fan boy.

Imagine if you will, 3 small boys in the middle of summer. No school, No home work just play time from sun up to sun down. Then they see a flyer that at the military base they live on will be showing this movie called Star Wars. Well we had to check this out and we looked up the dates and time and decided the next day we would go see this thing called Star Wars.

There is one cool advantage to living on base. As we got to the theater and paid our $5.00 bucks we headed in looking at the cool movie posters plastered about. I was excited and could not wait and really didn’t know what to expect. We strolled into the theater, back then there was only one screen. We headed down the aisles and low and behold we were the only there in here, five min before it was to start and we were it? Could it be that we get to watch this move by ourselves? Or was the movie that bad. I had heard it was good but no crowed, it did not bold well for us it seemed. Still we took our seats in the middle of the theater and settled in.

The lights dimmed, the curtain open up to reveal more of the screen. To our young eye it was a massive and when the projectors light hit the screen we knew it was time.

The traditional trumpet movie sounds blared out for the certified sound system. That’s when it happened, the simple two words blasted onto the screen with a new sound. “Star Wars” and the music, it just beat into your chest. Then we saw this scroll of text on the screen, it was moving into deep space. It was almost like 3D and for us and our time it was. We tried to read it as fast as it scrolled but it disappeared into the depth of space. We watched as the scene then slowly dropped to show some planet. It was amazing looking, something I had never seen on the big screen before.

There was a moment, a moment the sealed just how much I was going to like this movie. It was not in the middle or the end of the move, nope it was the first time we saw this massive ship, Space Ship seemingly fly over our heads to capture a smaller Space Ship. It was breath taking to see something so big and massive chasing what we had already though was a big ship. It flew overhead and chasing the small ship then with ease swallowed it up into his massive center using a claw to latch it to itself. We all looked at each other and we knew we were in for some kind of a ride. I was so submersed into the movie already that I had no idea what if anything was going on around me. I was there, I believed what I was seeing and what is was seeing was incredible.

There was a second moment, a moment that after many years would have impact on my life now. It’s the moment in the movie when we feel trapped in our small ship and here the noises of somebody, something, something bad getting ready to come through our bay door. I leaned forward in my seat as the people on the ship waited ready to fight whatever was coming. There were sparks and flashes and the door blew open and dressed in white armor came the Storm troopers blasting away. Clearing a path for something even more evil then what had already boarded the ship. I was sitting there wondering how much more could they take and it happened. This tall dressed in black man, machine or something walked through the damaged bay door and looked around as if all the death and destruction laying before him was normal, as normal as the mess in my bed room floor. It was something I had never seen, it scared me somewhat. However I was not going to show that slight fear in front of my friends. No way.

We sat watching intently as this movie came to an end. Wow, what an epic movie we all thought. We wanted more, to see it again. To go there, live there, fight the good fight. And we talked about it for days. It robbed us of our summer plans as we hashed out what we saw. But it was a theft we could and would live with.

That was my experience watching Star Wars for the first time. It’s what has brought me to this point in my life on some scale.  Being a member of the 501^st and dressing up as a Strom Trooper brings me back to that day. That dream of what could be and it also allows me to meet so many people by the charity work we do that just needs a day off from the day to day of their lives. When we make an appearance, we bring them and their kids joy, which in returns brings me mine.

501st Legion – Squad Seven